Composite Dairy Cattle Registry poised for growth

The Composite Dairy Cattle Registry has made numerous strides since July 2013, offering registration opportunities to the Fleckvieh, Montbeliarde, Norwegian Red, Red Dane, Swedish Red and White, and any other dairy cross that breeders and producers wish to register to preserve and document the ancestry of their animals.

Dr. Les Hansen, dairy geneticist at the University of Minnesota, applauds and supports our efforts. His comment to us is, “My observation is you are making remarkable progress in a short period of time in getting people to think more open-mindedly about allowing the accurate identification on cattle from the non-traditional dairy breeds in the U.S. as well as their crossbred offspring.”

Producers are excited about these dairy crosses. They find these cows are equaling or out producing their Holsteins in the herd. Other key facts that dairymen are seeing with these crosses is increased fertility, higher components, lower somatic cell counts, healthier animals and longer productive life.

One producer commented that looking back to a year when an equal number of female Holsteins to Crossbreds was born, that today, only 1 of those Holsteins compared to 9 Crossbreds are still producing in the herd.

On our Bull listings we are very excited to have some very outstanding Fleckvieh bulls listed. From Big Bear Genetics in Canada is an exciting new bull 297FL01048 “BFG REUMUT 10-850712” with 96 daughters that is +682kg Milk, +.05 Fat%, +33kg Fat, +.01 Protein%, +24kg Protein (German Proof). From Global Genetic Resources 504FL00080 “VANSTEIN 10-191658” the most used Fleckvieh bull in Europe with over 61,000 daughters that is +599kg Milk, +.02 Fat%, +27kg Fat, +.05 Protein%, +25 Protein (German Proof). Also representing the Montbeliarde are three bulls being marketed by Genex.

The Composite Dairy Cattle Registry with some help, has been able to secure the breed code of FL to identify the Fleckvieh breed. Along with this new breed code assignment we have been able to persuade the distributors to enroll the Fleckvieh bulls for cross referencing with the NAAB. We also have cross referencing lists on our website.

From the response that we have had, and the amount of semen marketed of these two breeds over that last ten years, we estimate there are well over 100,000 of these animals representing these breeds from crossbreds to Fullblood animals (thru imported embryos). These breeds are continuing to grow and become more popular as producers see the advantages. We are seeing increased interest in registering and identifying these breeds and other crossbred animals as well.

The Composite Dairy Cattle Registry is open to all dairy breeders and producers that have a need for registering their animals to identify, track, document and maintain the ancestry of past generations and future offspring, regardless of the breed or combination of breeds. For more information go to www.dairycattleregistry.com or call 816-738-4179.